Inside the hospital, the cold medical equipment beeped incessantly.
Zhao Yu lay on her hospital bed, her fingers struggling to hook into the hem of the person's clothes beside her.
"Granny, why are you pulling on me? Are you begging me?"
Bai Qingshuang played with the oxygen tube of the ventilator in her hands, then turned with a ferocious look and flung Zhao Yu's hand aside.
"If it weren't for you, my mom could have married Uncle Lu long ago! Only when you die can we truly become a family. Mom, you're so kind-hearted, you'll definitely help us make this happen, right?"
"Why are you wasting words on her?" Lu Yuan sat impatiently to one side. "Dad already told us to hurry up and do it so we can welcome Aunt Lin back home. What are you still dawdling for?"
"True, Dad is still waiting."
The moment Bai Qingshuang finished speaking, she exerted force with her hands and yanked the oxygen tube right off.
The ventilator instantly emitted a piercing alarm sound.
The scenery before Zhao Yu's eyes gradually blurred due to asphyxiation.
Her mind was left with only those few words: *Dad told us to hurry up and do it.*
In her increasingly hazy consciousness, she finally understood.
It turned out that all her previous suspicions had been correct: Lu Jing no longer loved her, and even wished for her to die early.
All so that he could be with Lin Shu without any obstacles!
Zhao Yu's hands struggled to lift, but she was powerless against the suffocation.
Suddenly, as if waking from a deep dream, her extremely labored breathing instantly smoothed out.
Her tightly closed eyes vaguely sensed a trace of light, and the muffled sounds suddenly became clear.
"Yuyu, I already told you I'll submit the marriage application as soon as I get back. Just consider the fact that Jianguo saved my life once, and give this position to Lin Shu, won't you?"
*Consider the fact that Jianguo saved my life once.*
She had heard this familiar sentence countless times during the thirty years after her marriage.
Every time, Lin Shu managed to reap plenty of benefits from it.
Zhao Yu forced her eyes open, and the surrounding scenery gradually grew clear.
Zhao Yu pinched her own thigh hard. The sting of the pain made her even more awake. She looked around, then recalled the words she had just heard.
Could she have... returned to the day she had just entered the Cultural and Art Troupe, when Lu Jing cajoled her into giving up her lead dancer position?
"Yuyu, don't misunderstand A-jing. If you really want this lead dancer position, I can give it back to you."
Lin Shu hid behind Lu Jing, hugging his arm like an octopus.
Although her tone of voice was pitiful and her movements cautious, the look she cast at Zhao Yu carried an undisguised smugness.
Hearing this, Lu Jing stepped directly in front of Lin Shu.
"Lin Shu is a younger sister I grew up with, and her husband died to save me. We're getting married anyway, so it's only right to take care of her a bit more."
Zhao Yu looked at this scene before her, feeling somewhat numb.
She had heard this set of excuses more than a hundred times. Whenever she showed even a tiny bit of resentment or dissatisfaction, he would bring up Wang Jianguo's life-saving grace.
After marriage, Lu Jing even forced her to resign from the Cultural and Art Troupe under the guise of "repaying a favor" and "taking care of her," pushing Lin Shu right in!
But what was the reality?
It was simply that after her husband Wang Jianguo died, Lin Shu discovered she was pregnant. If she couldn't find a good reason to stay in the Cultural and Art Troupe, her husband's family would drag her back to the countryside.
In her past life, she had swallowed her grievances to please Lu Jing and agreed, allowing Lin Shu to successfully stay in the troupe.
And Lu Jing had also fulfilled his promise and married her.
Yet after the marriage, half of Lu Jing's monthly salary was taken away and given to Lin Shu, and he even brought Lin Shu's biological daughter back home, making Zhao Yu raise the child.
Meanwhile, Lin Shu lived a flourishing life with her own monthly salary, her deceased husband's pension, and half of Lu Jing's salary.
As for Zhao Yu herself, she was busy with chores inside and outside the house without a single moment of rest.
The two of them were clearly the same age, yet she had been aged twenty-odd years older than Lin Shu in appearance.
When she finally managed to raise the child to adulthood, Lu Jing actually used the pretexts of "repaying a favor" and "the two children growing up together and knowing each other well" to make their son marry Lin Shu's daughter.
To the extent that her own daughter-in-law, Bai Qingshuang, pulled her oxygen tube when she was in her fifties!
Zhao Yu's hands gradually clenched into fists, and her body trembled uncontrollably.
In her past life, she had been miserably harmed by the two people in front of her for a whole lifetime. In this life, she would absolutely not repeat the same mistakes!
Seeing Zhao Yu stay silent for so long, Lu Jing thought she had been coaxed by him.
"I'll go talk to your troupe leader today, so you can voluntarily give the lead dancer position to—"
"What kind of thing are you, and by what right do you speak on my behalf?" Zhao Yu suddenly cut Lu Jing off.
"What did you say?" Lu Jing thought he had misheard.
"I said, who do you think you are? Do I know you? Talk about getting married—who gave you such a big ego to just say we're getting married?"
"Zhao Yu!" Lu Jing's face turned ugly. "I've already submitted the marriage report, and you're going back on our marriage just because you don't want to help Lin Shu?!"
A crisp "snap" interrupted Lu Jing's unfinished sentence.
Zhao Yu blew on her slightly reddened hand. "You talk too much."
"Zhao Yu, have you lost your mind?!" Lu Jing covered his face and roared in disbelief.
"You're the one who has lost your mind!" Zhao Yu lifted her foot and kicked Lu Jing in the leg.
"You're acting shady with Lin Shu yourself, and yet you come out to plague other people! Do you believe me if I go report you two for improper relations between a man and a woman?
Let me tell you, I won this lead dancer spot entirely on my own merit! You want me to give it to someone else? No way in hell!"
Zhao Yu's kick had little destructive power against Lu Jing, who trained year-round, but it touched upon his fragile male chauvinist nerve.
Lu Jing trembled as he pointed a finger at Zhao Yu, unable to speak for a long time.
Lin Shu let out a sharp cry and rushed over with a look of heartache to check the red swelling on Lu Jing's face.
"Yuyu, even if you're unhappy, you shouldn't hit people!
A-jing is going to be your husband in the future, he is your heaven! How could you raise your hand against him?
If you really have a grievance, take it out on me!"
As Lin Shu spoke, tears the size of soybeans fell uncontrollably.
Lu Jing felt his heart ache terribly, wiping away her tears while casting occasional glares at Zhao Yu.
Zhao Yu looked at the two of them acting like star-crossed lovers, let out a sneer, and said, "Alright then, this is the first time I've heard such a strange request. How can I not fulfill it?"
With that, Zhao Yu rushed forward and slapped Lin Shu across the face without a single shred of hesitation.
In her past life, Lu Jing was away from home year-round, and the reputation of a shrew she had cultivated just to protect her in-laws and children was something they both deserved to taste today!
Zhao Yu looked with satisfaction at the two bright, matching handprints on Lu Jing and Lin Shu's faces, feeling utterly pleased.
Regardless of how much she used to love Lu Jing's appearance, through those thirty-odd years of quarrels and torment, her rose-tinted glasses for Lu Jing had long since vanished entirely. Now, she simply found the mere sight of him disgusting.